Who Do You Think You Are?

The Moreno Valley's Genealogical Society makes a constant effort to understand where it is they come from: culturally, historically, religiously, and when possible, medically. Diana Roberts, who hasn't missed a single episode of TLC's TV show "Who Do You Think You Are?", and whose mother is French Canadian, recently joined the meeting for the first time. Roberts had tried ancestry.com, but she said, "I didn't find too much... a little bit from my grandfather, on the French side." So, when Roberts found out that French Canadian ancestry research expert, Ken Lewis, former President and now Vice President of the group, would be delivering a presentation on the French Canadian experience in North America dating as far back as 1534, Roberts's "interest peaked." John Calley is among the founding members since 1999, as is Lewis. Calley is also the Treasurer of the group, which meets in the Family History Center at 23300 Old Lake Drive. Speaking of Lewis, Calley started to say, "He's really the driving force behind the Mo- (group)." Before Calley could finish his statement, he was interrupted by Ed Wiebe, a fellow member since 2005, "I didn't know that! I could have guessed it easily," Wiebe laughs. Calley laughs as well, looking at his free-spirited friend, he says, "Huguenot!" jovially reprimanding his "housemate," which is the literal meaning of the word. Calley has researched his ancestry. "The furthest I've traced it back is to my sixth great, grandfather who was a Huguenot." Huguenots were part of the Protestant Reformation in France during the 16th and 17th centuries, inspired by the writings of John Calvin of the 1530s when he broke from the Roman Catholic Church. By 1560, the followers of the French theologian were called Huguenots, once a derogatory term used to ridicule, scorn and show contempt for such Protestant pioneers. Later, it became associated with honor and courage, according to Roche, a historian who published work on the Huguenots in 1965. Calley went on to share, as a result of ongoing religious tensions, Calley's ancestors were among the half a million Huguenots who fled their motherland. Calley's distant grandfather and his wife were on one of the first ships to colonize Virginia. Calley stated, "They arrived in Jamestown in April of 1700." When they arrived, Calley shared, the English "took the ship's manifest to the governor of the colony." Wondering what to do with the 150 or so Huguenots, Calley stated, "They were sent up above the rapids of the James River. Above the rapids is the low-rent district." He cdhuckled at the interesting comparison. "At the time [of religious persecution in France], about half a million Huguenots were killed. A lot of them fled to Switzerland, some to the low countries. Well, my ancestor and his wife, Marie, fled to England." Calley further stated that in a turn of events, as reward for fighting the Catholics in Ireland on behalf of the English, "Prince William III of Orange gave this group of Huguenots 150 acres in the colony of Virginia," of course, in the "low-rent district." Naturally, some of the members are only beginners, such as Sandi Smith who, when asked by her daughter what she was doing online, Smith replied, "I'm looking for dead people." The Moreno Valley Genealogical Society meets at 2 p.m. on the third Saturday of each month (excluding July, April and December, when the members meet for social functions such as fund raisers, yard sales and potlucks). For more information about the MV Genealogical Society, call (951)247-8839 or (951)485-3240.